Volume 9 Numbers 1/2

Winter/Spring 2000

Constitutional Watch
     A country-by-country update on constitutional politics in Eastern Europe and the ex-USSR

Slovakia - The Slovak political scene has been defined recently by power struggles over the fluid division of power among the president, government, and the courts, as well as by growing tensions within the ruling coalition. High unemployment (in excess of 20 percent) and the deteriorating living standards have diminished the government's popularity.

The four-member coalition government, led by Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda, assumed power from the increasingly autocratic Vladimir Meciar after the 1998 elections. The coalition is led by the Slovak Democratic Coalition (SDC), which shares power with the Party of Democratic Left (PDL), the Party for Civic Understanding (PCU), and the Party of the Hungarian Coalition (PHC). SDC itself consists of five parties: three right-wing parties (the Democratic Party [DP], the Democratic Union [DU], and the Christian Democratic Movement [CDM]) and two left-of-center parties (the Social Democratic Party [SDP] and the Green Party [GP]). Although the broad coalition lacks ideological coherence, it shares an aversion to Vladimir Meciar and his party, the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (MDS). Unfortunately, SDC itself is currently torn by conflicts between Dzurinda's supporters and CDM. At the end of January, these tensions resulted in the forma-tion of a new political party-the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDCU).

MDS recently launched a petition drive requesting early parliamentary elections. In response, Meciar's political opponents argued that early elections would be unconstitutional because Art. 30.4 protects the right of citizens to "have equal access to elected or public offices." Early elections-they assert-would violate the right of current MPs to serve out their full terms. President Rudolf Schuster weighed in on the debate by announcing his intention to consult with the Constitutional Court, although the Court has no power of preliminary review. In other words, the Court cannot scrutinize the constitutionality of proposed legislation before it is promulgated or evaluate a proposed refer-endum before the president announces it. Schuster claimed that his own legal advisors held, to the contrary, that such consultation was constitutional.

In 1999, the Constitutional Court reached some inconsistent conclusions on the amnesty issue, a ques- Slovakia.tion that arose in the wake of the kidnapping of former president Michal Kovac's son during Meciar's incum-bency. (See Slovakia Update, EECR, Vol. 8, No. 4, Fall 1999.) In December 1998, Prime Minister Dzurinda revoked the controversial amnesties that his prede-cessor, Vladimir Meciar, had granted to all the suspects involved in both the kidnapping and the subversion of the 1997 referendum (having to do with NATO). One of the beneficiaries of Meciar's amnesty, Jaroslav Svechota, the former deputy director of the intelligence service, appealed, claiming that his human rights were violated by both the regional attorney's office, in Bratislava, and the Ministry of Interior's Investigation Section, because they had continued their investigation of him after he was granted amnesty.

On December 20, the Court's first senate (one of its organizational components) decided that revoking an amnesty was unconstitutional, agreeing that Svechota's basic human rights were violated by revocation. The Court referred to Art. 17 of the Constitution, which stipulates that the "personal liberty of every individual shall be guaranteed; and no one shall be prosecuted or deprived of liberty unless for reasons and by methods set by law." The Court ordered the investigation imme-diately halted, claiming that its ruling was in line with the "spirit of European law," which prohibits the annulment of amnesties. Never before had the Constitutional Court of Slovakia reversed a government decision. It is not clear whether the ruling also applies to Ivan Lexa, former secret-service chief. Minister of Interior Ladislav Pittner claimed that it did not, but Lexa's lawyers argued otherwise. In January, Lexa filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights, claiming that the investigation violated his constitutional rights and the presumption of his innocence. Minister of Justice Jan Carnogursky, who also chairs CDM, announced that the ministry was drafting a bill that would cancel Meciar's amnesties. Although legal scholars noted that such a law would violate numerous legal norms, a group of CDM deputies submitted the bill to parliament at the begin-ning of February. On March 16, parliament rejected the proposed bill by a vote of 90 to 50.

The term of the nine Constitutional Court judges elected in 1993 expired in January 2000. There are ten Constitutional Court judges altogether (one elected in 1996 is still serving his term). New elections took place according to Art. 134 of the Constitution, which stipu-lates that "judges of the Constitutional Court shall be appointed by the President of the Slovak Republic for a seven-year term from twenty nominees approved by the National Council of the Slovak Republic." Another statute gives members of parliament, the government, the chairman of the Constitutional Court, academic institutions (law schools and the Institute of Law, at the Slovak Academy of Sciences), and the Association of Judges the right to propose candidates to the Constitutional Court. Parliament then selects 20 candi-dates from the group of nominees, and the president appoints ten of them to the Court.

On November 25, President Schuster appointed nine new judges to the Court, who joined the bench on January 20. The president also nominated the new Court chairman and vice chairman-Jan Mazak and Eduard Barany, respectively. Mazak was the state secretary at the Ministry of Justice and, from June through October of last year, was a vice chairman of PCU (which was founded by Schuster in 1998). Barany was the director of the Institute of Law and, previ-ously, a member of parliament for PDL. Two new judges are ethnic Hungarians, and one woman now sits on the Court as well.

The president's choices, and their provenances, are as follows: Barany was nominated by Peter Weiss, PDL's vice chairman. Alexander Brostl, who stepped down as the dean of the law school in Kosice, during Meciar's government, and served as an adviser to the Court, was nominated by Milan Cic, the former Court chairman. Juraj Babjak was nominated by the Association of Judges. Ludmila Gajdosikova, an expert on social policy, was the previous state secretary at the Ministry for Social Affairs. She is affiliated with PDL and was nominated by the former director of the Institute of Law (and new Court appointee), Eduard Barany. Jan Klucka, who was up for reelection (justices may serve more than one term), was nominated by the law school in Kosice. Jan Mazak was nominated by Milan Cic, and Lajos Meszaros by PHC. Stefan Ogurcak was also nominated by Barany and Weiss, and, finally, Daniel Svaby was selected by Stefan Harabin, the chairman of the Supreme Court.

An amendment to the Constitution, currently under consideration by a parliamentary commission, proposes to extend the Court's authority and expand the number of judges to 13. According to the proposed amendment, the Court could also review the compati-bility of international treaties with the Constitution, as well as that of municipal regulations and-at the presi-dent's request-the constitutionality of referenda. Mazak, for his part, stated that he would prefer an amendment according to which only the Court's plenary session, rather than either of its two senates, could review the Constitution and laws. Mazak also hopes that the Court's decisions will be enforced on a more regular and consistent basis.

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On November 16, Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduard Kukan and the Papal Nuncio to Slovakia, Luigi Dossena, signed a draft treaty between Slovakia and the Holy See. The issue of relations between the Catholic Church and Slovakia is a divisive one in Slovakian society and poli-tics. The current ruling coalition itself is split over the role of the Church in public life. CDM advocates a stronger role for the Catholic Church in education and media.

PDL rejects any increase in the Church's power. Over 60 percent of Slovaks are Catholics. PDL argues that a new law regulating the relations of the state with all religious denominations must be adopted before the treaty is ratified. Such a law would accord the same status to all churches, without granting the Catholic Church any particular privileges. PDL advocates two possible options for funding organized religions: the restitution of all church property, which would essentially allow churches to become self-financing, or the introduction of a tax levied on church members. PDL insists that the entire populace should not have to contribute to churches, which in any case already receive a state subsidy of up to 400 million crowns (approximately $10 million). CDM objects to these proposals. It seems this treaty will not be signed before a compromise is reached about the place of the Catholic Church in the education system, as well as in the military, police, and other state institutions.

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